So You Think You Are Unique Beading Challenge 2

Well we are well into our second contest in the So You Think You Are Unique Beading Challenge/Contest. We have broadened our horizons and opened the challenge to the international community also. DesignedbyLucinda provided the beads for this contest (Thanks Cindy!) and they look challenging! Here is the list of people participating this time around. And remember that SantiamDesign provided the beads the last time so she is making an entry this time.

pipsjewellery

Bath, United Kingdom




amityd


New Haven, Conneticut USA



reddhynes


Ottawa, Canada




foreverstartshere

Miami, Florida USA


TexasTesla


Banks, Oregon USA



SantiamDesigns


Mehama, Oregon USA





TwoObsessed



Seattle, Washington USA


CLKcreative


West Bloomfield, Michigan USA





PrettyChic


Richmond, Virginia USA



ravenworks


Portland, ME USA



eighty8words


Dayton, Washington USA



tassiewashie

Salem, Oregon USA




So these are our twelve and below are the two alternates in case someone doesn't get done in time. Also listed below is one of our judges, and we are looking for at least two more. If you want to volunteer to judge convo designedbyLucinda and let her know.

milburnjewelry ALTERNATE
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5156334

xueoriginals ALTERNATE
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5547109

I have three of the contestants that are already finished and I can tell already it is going to be another interesting challenge. How much alike or different do you think they will be?

One Judge so far:
crewelwhorled
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5641313

Poem for Peace

I found this poem in my mailbox at talentdatabase.com. It really touched my heart and spoke about the dreams for peace we all probably have for our world, ourselves and our children.

Title: Peace Please
© 2008 by DC Lessoway

When borders evaporate, war absconded
Hate ceases to breed contempt among us
When hands reach out, embracing those
Friends made out of enemies too

When the smile of an adult is childlike
One that is real, no longer a masquerade
When fear is only for the brave
Is when the world will finally become safe

This I want, hope for our children
Who have to face life’s struggle forlorn
But to have a world that is of peace
Would make their life such a sweet breeze

You can see more of what DC does at his myspace page www.myspace.com/dcles.

Thanks for the reminder DC!

How important are photos? The Results

I have several people who were kind enough of to send along some before and after pictures. Many of them show a dramatic difference. As you check these pictures out, ask yourself which one you would most likely click on and which one you would be more influenced to buy. Again, most of us are not professional photographers nor can we afford to hire one. But that's okay, you can see from these pictures that you can learn to take better pictures, at least well enough to get people to take a look at your items. I will start with mine and I will also add any comments that came with the pictures.


Silver River Jewelry

6000 pictures later lol!


TheBeadDreamer
For me, the photos are the hardest part. I have been making jewelry for years and continually seek to improve my work. I sell very well when a person can see and touch the item. Getting the pictures right is tough.

Candies64

For me, better pictures came by listening to what everyone was saying in the forums and practice, and more practice!


thewillowtree
The sock monkeys are 2 different ones, but they are both made out of the same socks, so they should be the same color! I took the first one against a wall in my kitchen, using artificial light. The second picture is on tissue paper, using natural light from a window in my living room. I also used a different photo editor (iPhoto) and was able to adjust the color much better, and make the white background smoother.


cuddlyquilts

My pictures were SO BAD before!


loosewirestudios






calloohcallay Here's a before and after of mine. The first one was taken with some photo lights (good ones, but I failed to block the window light at the same time, and who knows what else I did wrong). It's harsh and flat. The second one was shot with natural lighting and the colors are much better, the whole effect better (it sold after this).


So, you can see how bad some our pictures really were! Some people changed backgrounds (some of us more than once I am sure!). Some did a lighting/locations change. Some changed the angle at which the pictures were taken. Some of us did all three lol! There isn't any magic wand its just trial and error and more trial and error. Use that MACRO button, this is one of the most important features on your camera. Lots of people swear by natural light and it is one of the best ways to take pictures but if you don't have much access like me ( I work a "day" job and 8 months out of the year it is too late in the day to use natural light. And my weekends are packed, not much time to take pictures then. And it does rain on the weekends.) then don't be afraid to experiment with a light box. There are several very inexpensive ones that you can build yourself. My favorite and the one I started with is from www.strobist.com . This is a super way to get started with a light box for little to no money laid out. Play with your backgrounds, look outside for neat things to use in your pictures, try scrap booking paper, or material you have on hand. Just go for subtle and not too busy so that your items stands out. I would recommend staying away from red as a background for jewelry as it just doesn't seem to lend itself well to photographing. (keep in mind this is just a suggestion and if you can get it to work for you go for it). Last but not least, use an photo editing software program. This will allow you to adjust your pictures if the all of the above is not enough. (I use my software on ever single picture.) If you don't have any software, download Picassa or Gimp. I find Picassa to more user friendly for those that have no experience with this type of program.

Good luck to everyone, I hope these pictures inspire you to continue to improve your photos. Thanks to all who were kind enough to show those before pictures as well as the after. ( I look at mine and think sheesh! I can't believe I put that out there for the public to see lol!). Many thanks also to all of the people on the ETSY forums who so generously give out their advice on photographing pictures. You certainly shortened my learing curve.

Featured Artist

This time around I am featuring an artist who works primarily in steel with a bit of other things thrown in. He started out making furniture and decided to switch to making jewelry as the shipping was a wee bit prohibitive on the furniture end. And I would say that the switch was well worth it.

Timothy Adam Designs
I find his work to be totally unique in the way he puts things together. The pendants are very industrial looking at first glance but if you look closer there is a definite organic feel to them. I find this very interesting. I also find his use of different metals and shapes and the way he puts them together to be intriguing. This is a different perspective on the use of metals that most of us don't even consider for making jewelry. Honestly if someone would have said I would consider wearing jewelry that was made of steel and had an industrial feel to it I would have laughed. However, I have changed my mind and may be adding some of his collection to mine. (My personal one that is not the one I sell lol!). Not only does he make jewelry but he also make wonderful earring trees, and some very interesting sculpture. He has been very active in the etsy forums and has also been actively promoting other artists. This shop definitely deserves a look and probably a second and third look. Go check it out!

How important are photos?

So, I have several different venues that I am currently selling my jewelry on. Any way I am very active in the forums at these other venues and am constantly hearing the same thing. I am not being critical here but I see it a LOT. The QUESTION!! Why are my things not selling? Obviously there could be many reasons for this and I may go into those further on another day. The number one reason that I can see why most people are not selling is that the photo's are bad. Some of them are downright horrible. As in I can't tell if that is a necklace or a blob. Again I am not saying that to be mean but in all honesty, how can you expect to sell it if your customers can't see it? If the picture is so dark I can't tell if it is green or purple, chances are that I, and most other people are going to move on to the next store. There are thousands of them out there. I have to tell you that my pictures take a lot of work. I have hours and hours of photo time in my pictures. I have retaken photos of my inventory five time now. Most of the them with five or more different angles per items. I currently have 236 items for sale. Do the math (okay I will do it for you lol!) That is close to 6000 pictures. Trust me, they didn't start out this good. And I am sure there is room for improvement. However my customers can see my items in detail. Is it wrapped well? What color is it? Is it well made? My customers need to be able to see this in order to have confidence in my product. Plus, pretty pictures make you want to click.

Use your macro setting if you sell small pieces. Use a light box. You can build one for less that five dollars. (www.strobist.com). Use this it can be your best friend. Yes everyone says natural light is best but you know what? I work a job and don't get home before dark every day especially in the winter. And can I wait two weeks for the sun to come out (NOT). Edit your photos after you download them to your computer. If you don't have software you can download Picassa or Gimp online for FREE. Picassa is much more user friendly that Gimp for people unfamiliar with this type of program. Crop them, lighten them, brighten them whatever you need to do to make them look good. Experiment with different background, but don't make it too busy. Have fun with it and play a little. Develop your own style and aim for something that people will say hey, those earrings are from Silver River Jewelry because I recognize the style. I hope that you found these tips useful and it would be cool if you sent me some before and after pics. If enough people send them in I will do another post showing the pictures with links to your site.

Judges Results for Beading Challenge 1

Okay so here is what the judges had to say about our entries. Keep in mind that there is no prize and the reason we started this was in response to the massive amount of threads on Etsy about people copying other people's designs. We wanted to see what would happen if 12 people recieved the same exact beads and how similar or different the earrings would be. You can see the results in my previous post.

EmmaRoseJewelry
They are different, but I can see where if they'd just appeared in someone's shop that someone else could say, "Did they riff that off mine, they're kind of similar or that one part is almost identical." It's a good lesson!

Love the variety and the surprise of several people using copper. Beautiful and unexpected (to me)!

I also love that within this variety that there are clear stylistic differences. I can point to every pair and think, "This is what my friend Kat would wear. Those are my sister's style. My niece would love that pair."

Due to the fine quality of the designs, this was much harder than I thought it would be to judge.

best use of beads
BeadyMonkey and StonesandStartlings

most original design
melaniehazen because she transformed the beads into an integrated design where you're not as aware of the individual beads as you are of the whole piece

most similar
Earthly Creations
Designed by Lucinda
TeaguesBeads

YadaYadaYada
As a judge for this contest, I vote as follows:

First Place: StudioHart wins for most unique and eye catching.

Second Place: SilverRiverJewelry for most creative and technical.

Third Place: blackcoral for best mix of materials.

Fourth Place: StonesandStarlings and sleepingcatbeads tie for most use of the beads.

Good job everyone! I had a tough time judging!

Marelle

Best Use of Beads: Sleeping Cat Beads
Most Original Design: Beady Monkey
The two designs that are the most similar: Designed by Lucinda and Teague's Beads
Thank you for this opportunity to participate as a "judge". I was most interested in seeing the distinct individuality even when similarity existed.
Marilyn


The House of Worn
thanks for having me as a judge. Her are the catagories you asked for:

best use of beads:
melaniehazen

most original design:blackcoral

two designs that are the most similar:
DesignedbyLucinda
TeaguesBeads

As you can see there were several designs that were very similar and several that were completely different. No one saw what the other people were making including me (I made mine before all but the first design picture was sent to me. And I had already sketched out my design at that point. This just goes to show that at first glance something may indeed be very similar or even almost an exact copy. Before we jump to the conclusion that someone has stolen our design or copied us, maybe we should slow down and realize that it could just very well be a coincidence and the fact that the other person may just think like you do. I am not saying that copying does not happen because we all know that it does. I am just saying that you need to thoroughly investigate the issue before jumping to conclusions.

Stay tuned for Beading Challenge 2. We will start this on Friday, March 28th at 1pm Eastern Standard Time. This contest will be open to the international community as well and DesignedbyLucinda is providing the beads and shipping this time around.

Beading Challenge Results!

Okay this is what everyone has been waiting for. A big thanks again to SantiamDesigns for providing the beads for this challenge and shipping them to all of us for free. I have heard from more than one person who did this challenge that is was a bit difficult to decide what to do with these beads. They are as small as they look ha ha! A lot of the designers had never or very rarely used beads this small. We were able to use our own findings as long as the beads that were sent were the main part of the design. I did my design on paper the day I got the picture of the beads because I didn't want to see what anyone else had done. I wanted to go into it without everyone else's ideas in my head. I am going to list them in the order that I received the pictures and I will be putting a link to each persons shop with their name. I had a lot of fun with this and I think everyone else did to.

StonesandStarlings







EarthlyCreations







Studiohart









melaniehazen








DesignedbyLucinda








byrobinlynne






virtuallori








SilverRiverJewelry







blackcoral








sleepingcatbeads









beadymonkey






TeaguesBeads







Okay so I really tried to get these to line up side by side so people wouldn't have to scroll down the page too far but I am not that good at hotmail so this is as good as it gets. I find this whole thing fascinating as there are some that are very similar and some that are very different. And nobody had any idea what any one else was doing so there was no way they could have copied or not copied any designs. I would love to have comments on this contest and maybe people will realize that for the most part if you see a design that is similar or even almost exactly the same as yours, chances are good that they didn't copy they just think like you do.

And as Cindy said " the challenge is a great way to make us designers maybe have to think outside of the box and stretch ourselves..."

I also got lots of comments that this was just a fun thing to do and I think sometimes we get so caught up in selling (which isn't a bad thing, let's face it, we would all love to make a decent living at this) that we forget why we started doing this in the first place. At least for me, get a huge amount of satisfaction and joy out of a piece but sometimes in between the picture taking, the constant promoting, listing and just regular life I can sometimes lose that sense of satisfaction. And while this is a type of promotion it was a lot of fun to do and there was that anticipation of the beads arriving and now the fun of seeing what everyone has come up with.

Featured Etsy Artist

Battlemaiden

I have to confess that I have always loved science fiction/fantasy. Mostly the fantasy to be truthful. I think it started as a small child and the addition of fairy tales to the bedtime routine. I am an avid (I can read a paperback in two hours) reader and have read just about everything I can get my hands on. The Dragonriders of Pern, and all the rest of Ann McCaffrey's books, David Eddings, Wies and Hickman, Terry Goodkin and Marion Zimmer Bradley to name a few. The wonderful places that these books have taken me to are wonderfully exotic and different from my day to day life. They allow me to be, for the time that I am reading, the heroine, or the dragon rider that saves the day, or the elf, dwarf or human that helps save the world from evil. The featured artist I have chosen for today from Etsy has taken the characters that I see in my head when I read and put them on paper. She is well worth a look if you are remotely interested in fantasy art. Valorie has managed to capture the feel of the fantasy world perfectly in her work and every time I come across her shop I want to go pick up a book and escape for a short period of time back into that wonderful world of fantasy where I can be anything and conquer evil in 350 pages or less. (Give or take a hundred pages).

Beading Challenge Update

Just a real quick update to let everyone know that the beads have started to arrive and people are getting started on their earrings. We already have one set of earrings that are finished! I am not going to spoil the surprise and post the picture and I really don't want anyone to see anyone else's design because that would kind of defeat the purpose of the whole thing. Don't worry I already have my design worked out so I won't be influenced. Remember they need to be done by the 24th of March. Happy designing everyone and I am hoping mine will be here tomorrow!

Beading Challenge Part 2

Well we posted out challenge on the Etsy forums in the Business and Marketing section (Thanks Rob for the go ahead on this). It took less than 7 minutes to fill the remaining eight spots. We are doing twelve total with the idea of trying to get a Treasury when we are done. I will be listing the 12 people who are participating with links to their shops and also the judges with links to their shops at the end of this post. The beads are going out by Monday from SantiamDesigns
(thanks again Kira). Contestants have until the 24th of March to finish their designs and list them on Etsy for all of us to see (and hopefully they will sell also lol!). I will of course do a blog post with the finished products for everyone to browse also. Keep in mind that there is no prize so the speak just the fun of the challenge. Here are the beads that are in the challenge. What would YOU make?

So here is the list of participants making the earrings.

DesignedbyLucinda

SilverRiverJewelry

EarthlyCreations

BlackCoral (yes she does jewelry too)

byrobinlynne

virtuallori

DesignedbyLara

TeaguesBeads

SleepingCatBeads

melaniehazen

stonesandstarling

studiohart

And here is a list of the judges

YadaYadaYada

marelle

theHouseOfWorn

EmmaRoseJewelry

Beading Challenge

Well I was browsing through the Etsy forums ( which is extremely addicting, if you haven 't checked it out I highly recommend it, it is open to both sellers and buyers) the other day and there it was, another thread about "someone copied my stuff." Which of course started a debate on people coming up with the same design independently. Which happens all over the world all the time no matter what category of product you are hand producing. I am not saying that people don't copy, plenty of them do. I am also not saying that no one ever has an original idea because they do. However there are really only so many ways to make a circle out of metal, put bead on a string and make a tote. It's all in what you do with it as far as color, materials and that little something that is you and no one else. So I ran into a friend of mine on Etsy who happened to be chatting in the same thread (http://DesignedByLucinda.etsy.com) and I after some friendly banter I said something like "wouldn't it be neat if a group of us got together and using the same beads each came up with a design so that we could see how similar or different each persons design would be?!" Cindy said yes that would be so cool and then Kira (http://SantiamDesigns.etsy.com) said "Hey I would be willing to provide the beads and ship them to everyone". (Like anyone is going to turn down free beads to play with haha!). A couple of other people chimed in and said that they would be interested in joining us so the three of us decided that we would go ahead and give it a try. Not only would it be an interesting and fun thing to do but it would also be a good way to promote our shops. (We are really hoping for a storque article out of this). So Kira is providing the beads, Cindy is organizing and in touch with Rob from Etsy on the appropriate way to do this, and I am going to be updating our progress as we go. I will also post pictures of the finished products. I believe we will have a couple of judges although there is no prize in this challenge other than the satisfaction of seeing the outcome. (And free beads to play with). If this is successful we may decide to do it two or three times a year with a different person contributing the beads each time. So we will be posting our challenge in the Business and Marketing portion of the forums with Rob's permission and I will keep you updated on what happens next.

Expanding My Horizons

Also known as not putting all of my eggs in one basket. Please don't get me wrong, I am a die hard etsy fan, I love the community, I have no issues with the way they run things and really believe that they do listen to their sellers and implement many of the things that we have asked for. Etsy will most likely remain my main squeeze so to speak. Having said all of that I have to say that selling jewelry on Etsy is a bit like drowning. There are sooooo many jewelry sellers there. And many of them are very under priced. (I know, now everyone is off to etsy to find great, under priced jewelry lol). And the numbers just continue to grow. I don't mind competition and I love a challenge but I have come to learn some things since I started this whole venture in July. In order to be successful you have to be seen as often as possible. And not just in one venue. I am coming to realize that I need to be seen all over the net as often as possible. Silver River Jewelry needs to come up often in the search engines from a variety of places. (I know this is not a new thought by any means but some of us are slow learners or are just intimidated by the whole thing). So with that in mind I have branched out just a bit.

I have just opened up shop on a beta site called Icraftca.com.

http://www.icraft.ca/silver_river_jewelry

If you open up shop there before March 31st you can list unlimited items free for 1 year. Here are their terms that applies after March 31st.

Registration Fee	$25.00 CAD This is a small, non-refundable one-time fee each seller pays when setting up their "Creator Exhibit". It is required in order to verify the seller's identity, ensure credit card validity and to encourage honest transactions. This preventative measure will give buyers confidence that they are dealing with serious, honest sellers.
Subscription Fee	Three available packages allow you to customize the amount of products your Creator Exhibit displays. You can add, delete or rotate your products any time you want. If your business is seasonal, you can put your subscription on hold and resume it at any time. The subscription fee is not refundable if you choose to un-list a product from your inventory. 1 to 5 Items (interchangeable) – ALWAYS FREE! Starter 5 to 20 Items (interchangeable) - $15.00 CAD/month. Every additional item is $2.50 CAD/month. Professional 5 to 30 Items (interchangeable) - $25.00 CAD/month. Every additional item is $1.50 CAD/month. Elite 5 to 40 Items (interchangeable) - $35.00 CAD/month. Every additional item is $1.00 CAD/month. If you happen to reach the maximum amount of items in your package, iCraft.ca will give you the option of adding an additional item at a set cost, or upgrading to the next available package. The choice will always be yours.
The Details	Limited Time Offer Sellers who submit inventory to their Creator Exhibit by March 31, 2008 will not be charged ANY registration or subscription fees for an entire year. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of all the great iCraft.ca benefits for absolutely NO COST. 5 Free Items When posting your products, the first 5 items are always FREE! And if you sell one, you can replace it with another right away at no extra cost. As long as you keep your listings to 5, you won't be charged. Interchangeable Items When we say that items are "interchangeable", that means you have complete flexibly to change / update what is displayed. For example, say you have 5 "summer" items in your inventory in July. When October arrives, you decide you want to update your 5 items to reflect your "winter" collection. You can do so at no additional charge, as long as you place your "summer" items on hold. "On hold" items are not included in your active inventory, and will not be counted as part of your package - only items which you flag as "live" are. It's About Quality, Not Quantity Unlike most other arts & craft ecommerce sites, iCraft.ca does not charge creators per quantity of a listing. For example, if you have a product page showcasing your knitted scarf, and you have 5 of them available for sale, feel free to list the "Availability" quantity as 5! We will not charge you any additional fees. Pricing Policy was last updated on January 24, 2008 Questions? Please feel free to Contact Us.

This is an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new hand crafted site which I find quite intriguing. Also it is a win win situation since it costs nothing to try them for a year. I think this is a superb opportunity for anyone thinking about expanding their horizons. They will be going public sometime in the next several weeks I believe and will begin advertising the site at that point. (It will be nice to have someone helping out with the advertising). So, for those of you who want to try another venue in addition to where you are this is a great place to try with no risk to you or your pocket book.

I will be posting about another site that I am trying sometime it the next couple of weeks.

Etsy Artist of the Week

PENGIES

I ran across this shop in the forums and just couldn't resist. These are little penguins made of fimo clay in an assortment of poses and colors. Her is what Caitlin says in her profile about her "pengies".

Pengies are little model penguins, made of a special clay called fimo. Each little critter has it's own personality, with a name & message to suit. They are bright & colorful, and they all need a loving home, so take a look & maybe take one home...

Now these are also customizable as far as names, colors, personality and sayings go. They come in two sizes. You can also request a holiday themed pengie by using the "convo" feature on Etsy.

What can I say?! These just caught my eye as being really cute and colorful and some of the expressions on their faces are great. Go check out her shop and take some home.